FOOTBALL

If It’s Friday, It’s Time For A USC Notes Column

The women’s soccer game between No. 21 USC and No. 7 Ohio State on Oct. 17 has been moved to BMO Stadium, home to LAFC.

This is the first thing USC has done that makes sense regarding the women’s soccer team and home games. Admission to the game will be free.

  • There is no USC rally or band performance today in Minneapolis today if you are going to the game. It’s too bad because the University of Minnesota is only 10 minutes from downtown.
  • And now for some history:
  • It’s the 50th anniversary of the 1974 team. Here are defensive linemen (from left) Art Riley, Otha Bradley and Gary Jeter. Now that is a defensive line. No. 24 is Marvin Cobb.
  • There was a time when the cover of a game program was a work of art. Like this 1971 USC-Washington State game program cover, which recapped the career of former USC athlete/football coach/athletic director Jess Hill.
  • The 1964-65 USC basketball team featured Bill Westphal, the older brother of Paul Westphal and Ron Shackelford, the older brother of UCLA basketball player Lynn Shackelford.

Bill Westphal later became the basketball coach at Occidental College and Grand Canyon College.

  • Speaking of brothers, Bill Brodie was an apartment manager just off campus in 1959. He was the brother of former Stanford and San Francisco 49ers QB John Brodie.

Bill Brodie attended USC before he returned as an apartment manager.

  • When USC held its spring formal dance in 1947, the entertainment was provided by Desi Arnaz and his orchestra. At that point, he had been married for seven years to Lucille Ball.

TUSK TRIVIA

  • Everyone knows about the USC band and Fleetwood Mac performing together on the classic “Tusk.”

But did you know they were selected for the song because Mick Fleetwood’s secretary recommended them? Fleetwood was doing a documentary on how to make a record and looking for a band to provide background instrumentals.

When the song was recorded at Dodger Stadium, band members volunteered to appear. Only 120 of the 250 members were present because it was early June and USC students were on summer vacation. How many later regretted not showing up?

Fleetwood Mac made a donation to the band that paid for travel costs to the 1979 USC-Notre Dame game in South Bend and the band’s new uniforms in 1980.

“Our hometown band has really made it with a big rock band,” KHJ disc jockey True Don Blue said in 1979.

During the day spent at Dodger Stadium, Fleetwood demonstrated impromptu drum techniques to the USC band drummers and Stevie Nicks helped out with the recording equipment.

PICTURE OF THE WEEK

Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner take a break from filming “The Killers” in 1946.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Kris Kristofferson was a successful musician and actor. But he was also a rugby player at Pomona College and Rhodes Scholar who attended Oxford, where he was a boxer and rugby player. And he worked as a helicopter pilot. He landed a helicopter in Johnny Cash’s front yard to try and get him to listen to his tapes.

He also worked for a dredging contractor on Wake Island in the Western Pacific. One of his best performances/films was “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid” (1973), which was directed by Sam Peckinpah, who got his master’s degree at USC.

Here he is singing a duet in 1972 with Rita Coolidge, his wife from 1973-80.

48 thoughts on “If It’s Friday, It’s Time For A USC Notes Column”

  1. There’s that 1974 game again popping up at Wolf’s

    Burt Lancaster was a hell of a gymnast before Hollywood forbid him from performing

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      2. …and only Mister Sinatra could handle losing something that exquisite…. [and even he had a pretty frigging hard time pulling it off]….

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      3. Ava Gardner wrote that Sinatra was the love of her life and she had many lovers. Frank couldn’t handle her infidelity. He bounced back well with a list that included Lana Turner, Angie Dickinson and the two women featured in last weeks column – Anita Ekberg and Vikki Dougan. What a life!

        Liked by 2 people

      4. ..once when a gossip columnist was asking Frank about Ava’s life after they divorced, Sinatra said “I’m not made of stone”…..

        #LovedItWhenHeSaidDickinsonWas”MyKindaBroad”

        Liked by 2 people

      5. Always liked the term “broad.” Meant tough, smart, lady when Frank said it. Of course, it is considered pejorative today. Too bad. Good word.

        Liked by 1 person

    2. Hollywood let Walter Matthau and Burt slug it out in a grueling 10 minute fight in The Kentuckian. [Who’d win in a fight between good pals Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster? My money’s on Kirk].

      Who’d win in a fight between Rita and Kris? According to Rita, Kris.

      #AnotherInScott’sLongLineOfFunFridayPieces

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      3. ..as in any closely matched fight it would largely depend on the ref….

        #….IHearKamala’sAskingForWillieBrown….

        #[DougWantsTulsiGabbard]

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      4. Good News MG! Kamala is finally giving money to victims of the hurricane. Oh wait, it’s only $750 each… just like the Maui fire victims…Any update on the recovery in Lahaina?

        Liked by 2 people

      9. But you said real men meet up……I am still waiting!

        So, since you avoid a meet up I can draw the conclusion you’re a keyboard warrior.

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      10. Gabby — Biden told the Lahaina survivors that their $750 “was just the beginning.”

        #MostDidn’tEvenGetThe$750

        #[HironoSaidWeDon’tWantTheMoneyUnlessUkraineGets50Billion]

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      13. Cowardly Gabby is that stupid , MG. She’s also still defending Senile Joe after even the Fake News now admits he is incapacitated. Cowardly Gabby is still continuing the charade of challenging posters to fights after proving over and over again she is The Coward of the County.

        Liked by 1 person

      14. you never showed up in Miami, Barstow, Pasadena and Las Vegas….looks like you have avoided numerous meets up……….. why?……..cowardly fake gabby, aka scott’s sock***puppet

        Wait for it 3…2…1.. another stale cut and paste…. a plow horse re-post is he’s go-to buffoonary….

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      15. Cowardly Gabby hates being convicted by her own words just like her role model Kamala…

        Gabby (original)
        JULY 8, 2023 AT 3:06 AM
        no one is going to fight someone over comments made in a blog…..plow is an old man just popping off…and you fu*&ing know it…

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      19. LMFAO! Look who’s talking. The person who’s life is so empty and lonely she has to find enjoyment annoying other people online!

        Liked by 1 person

      20. What kind of government lets FEMA spend $640,000,000.00 on criminal illegal aliens in 2024 and now has no money to help Americans who lost everything from Hurricane Helene…?

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Another charade. The last Trojans to test positive to a steroid test were the Ting Bros in 2005. You really think Brian Cushing wasn’t roided up in 2008?

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    1. Kris was amazing in the 1996 film Lone Star —definitely worth watching this weekend as kinda a way of saying “goodbye”….

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      1. Coolidge was the ex girlfriend of Jim Gordon who was the drummer for Derek and the Domino’s.

        The piano part on Layla was Gordon stealing the harmony from his Coolidge

        Gordon would later stab his mother to death in a schizophrenic haze

        Liked by 1 person

  4. With the SC-Minnesota game scheduled to kickoff at 6:30 p.m local time, it figures most of the Gophers’ fans will be pretty juiced up by then and ready to be loud

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      2. “I remember when being up for the game used to be a spiritual thing. Now you ask a player if he is up for the game, and he responds that he’s been up all week.” George Carlin on drugs in sports

        Liked by 1 person

      3. George Carlin on a 4 year old boy telling him he’d already kissed a girl:

        Carlin: How did it feel?

        4 year old: I was too high to remember.

        Liked by 1 person

  6. Charming: Recent polls indicate you are on a roll

    Prince: Whether voters like me or not I’m a known quantity and you’re not

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      2. Biden Regime Gives $157 Million to Murderous Muslims In Lebanon Who Were Attacking Israel as Flood Victims Continue to Suffer in Southeast US – They Really Don’t Care About You

        Liked by 1 person

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